Alexa Skills Challenge

Amazon has an online challenge to compete with Google for voice services. At devpost.com you can register with your Github account for a submission and win prizes up to $5,000 including devices. Subsequently, register a development account or login. Here you can find a:

As explained at this page the smart-home skill is less complicated than the custom skill because Amazon defines the interaction model. There are the following device directives:

turn on / turn off

increase / decrease

dim

Besides that, Amazon also defines the words the user can use to initiate these directives. How the Crownstone reacts upon one of these requests is the content of the nodejs server and is called a skill adapter.

Amazon did not include directives to e.g. read out the power consumption of a device, turn on groups of devices, have devices turn on or off after a certain period, or other more sophisticated requests.

At Amazon pick the right region, Ireland for English skills in Europe: